Edubuntu

We’re preparing Edubuntu 14.04, the Trusty Tahr, for distribution in April 2014. With this early Alpha pre-release, you can see what we are trying out in preparation for our next version. We have some interesting things happening, so read on for highlights and information.

NOTE: This is an alpha pre-release. Eubuntu Pre-releases are NOT recommended for:

  • Regular users who are not aware of pre-release issues
  • Anyone who needs a stable system
  • Anyone uncomfortable running a possibly frequently broken system
  • Anyone in a production environment with data or workflows that need to be reliable

Edubuntu Pre-releases ARE recommended for:

  • Regular users who want to help us test by finding, reporting, and/or fixing bugs
  • Edubuntu developers

Getting Edubuntu 14.04 Alpha 1

Download a Disk Image

Instructions for burning the image to a DVD or USB flash drive can be found on the Burning ISO Howto.

We recommend you learn how to check your image file so your pre-release is as it’s supposed to be. Compare your MD5 checksum with the correct ones found alongside the images.

Alpha 1 Highlights

For the first time in 14.04, Edubuntu has a directory server that supports single sign-on.

Infrastructure

Linux Kernel

The Alpha 1 Trusty Tahr snapshot includes the 3.12.0.7 Ubuntu Linux kernel which is based on the the upstream v3.12.4 Linux kernel. The 3.12 release contains improvements to the dynamic tick code, support infrastructure for DRM render nodes, TSO sizing and the FQ scheduler in the network layer, support for user namespaces in the XFS filesystem, multithreaded RAID5 in the MD subsystem, additional highlights are described here.

Known Problems

Edubuntu Desktop

  • New glib (2.39.1) causes some indicators & nautilus to not load promptly (1256961)

Installation

  • The desktop image installer cannot unlock existing encrypted (LUKS) volumes. If you need to make use of existing encrypted volumes during partitioning, then use the "Try Ubuntu without installing" boot option to start a live session, open the encrypted volumes (for example, by clicking on their icons in the Unity launcher), enter your password when prompted to unlock them, close them again, and run ubiquity to start the installer. (1066480)

  • ARM OMAP4 machines will sometimes boot to a black screen during installation. It's likely that the system has booted fine, but you will need to switch to another tty then back to tty7 (Ctrl+Alt+F1 and then Alt+F7) to get graphics. (1065902)

  • On a mac with an external display can not run in framebuffer mode error occurs on the 2nd reboot onwards. (1066883)

  • When using installer to upgrade or reinstall an existing installation with encrypted swap, the installer may fail to reuse the partition. A warning will be shown, however the installation can be completed. The installed system will not have swap activated and users are advised to recreate swap on their systems. Please see advice about adding and activating swap at: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/SwapFaq (1172002)

  • Installs on very small memory systems may fail to start or exit without completing with no error. It is recommended that swap be created before install for such systems. Please see advice about adding and activating swap at: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/SwapFaq (1172161)

  • In rare circumstances the 'Next' button on the installer 'Install Type' screen is non-functional. This is intermittent and may be resolved by hitting 'Back' and retrying. (1172572)

Kernel

  • On some systems, when opening lid, there is a kerneloops with a suspend/resume failure message seen. (1054732)

Networking

  • In order to improve compatibility with other local nameserver packages, NetworkManager now assigns IP address 127.0.1.1 to the local nameserver process that it controls instead of 127.0.0.1. If the system's /etc/resolv.conf is absent or is a static file instead of the symbolic link to ../run/resolvconf/resolv.conf installed by default then this static file will have to be updated by the administrator in order to continue using the NetworkManager-controlled nameserver.

Feedback

Development of Edubuntu 14.04, the Trusty Tahr is ongoing and bugs are fixed every day. Before reporting bugs, please ensure your system is up to date. For verifying installation related bugs, updated disk images are available from Daily bootable images for standard PCs/laptops/netbooks.

TrustyTahr/Alpha1/Edubuntu (last edited 2013-12-19 23:03:41 by 99-191-111-134)